Part 164
Sitemap ' --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ' Whole Lots More Fabulous Items/Ideas For a BioShock Rapture MMORPG ' --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ' ' Part 164 ' --- --- --- --- --- --- ' Ryan Revised History ?' : Ryan's Early Life in Russia .... near Minsk... A fairly complicated situation there : 1813–1917 To Russian Empire 1918–1918 Under German occupation 1918–1919 To Belarusian National Republic 1919–1919 To Byelorussian SSR 1919–1920 Under Polish occupation (actually changed hands twice) 1921–1941 To Byelorussian SSR, since 1922 in the Soviet Union --- So NOW Andrew Ryan is supposed to be a cutout American Jew who rejects 'Judaism' in every way ? ''' A jew in name only, used supposedly to give diversity and authenticity to a computer game which mostly deals with mass-slaughtering things. Noteworthy also is : The majority of evil/maniacal characters seem to be a 'Jewish'. This is not overly complementary and might seem a bit more like overcompensation ? - "Authentic Diversity" - That Levine interview was in 2015 ? Seems a bit RetCon this new identity for Ryan. Was there a clue anywhere about this in the BioShock games or in the Novel (John Shirley might have elaborated upon it) indicating this new Jewish nature of Andrew Ryan ? Consider : "Andrew" (Andrei) is the patron saint of Russia (Orthodox Christian Russia) and the Ukraine. Is that really a name a Jew would take or be allowed to take within Russian domination? In the Novel, Ryan's fathers name is 'Pyotr' (Peter is another very important Christian saint) and a relative is Demitri (? St. Demetrios -- another Orthodox saint). Maybe Shirley didn't get the memo ? Seems a bit fishy. Levine's recent interviews mention some new game he's trying to organize (and something about "narrative Legos" which sounds like variable and Player-shapeable plots to increase replayability). In any case, sounds more like trying to be trendy for the Game Industry being behind all this loudly retro-mentioned 'Diverstity' stuff. --- --- --- Game Mechanics '''Less Pop-a-mole Combat Please : Many MMORPGs with their minefields of enemies have extremely short-ranged proximity activation of the Opponent NPCs (as little as 20/30 feet with NO cover/LOS/frontage/blockage considered). Sometimes the game might have alot of blocking scenery/blind corners to try to justify it, others this myopia still happens in an open field. This is an idiot-simple opponent scripting, which does not have to be customized/improved to handle terrain and not have an "AI" worthy of that label. These deaf/dumb/blind opponents also don't signal each other to call reinforcements, nor react to QUITE nearby explosively noisy battle sounds (and they will stand like dummies/mannequins while their friends/compatriots are slaughtered merely feet away). This is done by game companies because it is much easier to level-scale SINGLE opponents scattered across MOST of the game map to the Players level. This is disconcerting and a breaker of perceived proper combat interaction. * It is done in order that the Player NOT get swamped by the multitude of ALL of the opponents in a scene when you simply walk into sight. No thinking about tactics are required on the Players part. * It is also done so that the NPC Opponents AI need do the least possible/simplest detection (ie- no Line OF Sight checking). The behavior programming of these opponents also is an utterly simple reactive activation and attack - either to shoot (after clearing any LOS obstacles) or charge at Player and melee. * Usually there are way too many grunt opponents around (usually picking their butts doing nothing, with little reason to stand where they do -- except to be targets in what is basically a roving shooting gallery), which allows the game to handle a flood of Players on opening day (when new content is released) when Player hordes go thru the gauntlet-like areas like a swarm of Piranhas. * It is done because instead of carefully choreographing a scene, it is easier to just place opponents everywhere so that Players WILL frequently run into them and have to engage (no matter that fighting every one of them is in EXACTLY the same way -- rather unimaginatively/boringly). Players can navigate past many of them in open areas, but these opponents are often placed such that you cannot move in a straight line for more then 10 seconds without activating at least one. Spacing is usually close enough that any kind of maneuvering tactics are pointless (you just activate more opponents). What would the MMORPG do different ? Fewer Opponents, but ones with more complex/varying tactics (quality vs quantity) and using the terrain advantages (more like some Solo games). The processing power for this AI is 100X as much as the game 'dummies' mentioned above, but they would be far fewer (and make use of the CPU advancements over the past years to have MORE AI ). These NPC Opponents should also look like they BELONG where they are, instead of just being randomly dropped onto the scenery by the developers. --- --- --- NPCs Need to be Better : NPC Following you moving through rough and complex terrain (This in in immediate vicinity of Player - normal Avatar movement). How miserable the pathfinding 'follow' programming is in so many MMORPGs (and even in some Solo games), but then it is frequently not even part of the main game functioning, and NPCs guided for canned scene 'scripting' can cheat and not be restricted to the Players navigation mesh system. Another thing seen in some games is the NPC getting involved somewhere and wandering off (not keeping up and even being set upon by enemies out of sight). They need to be programmed to take their lead from the Player. The Rapture Reborn MMORPG would NOT have such crappy 'good enuf' (afterthought) programming and ITS terrain would be significantly more complex, with more options and repercussions for picking different paths/terrain types to traverse. This includes DURING combat where terrain factors in the MMORPG are more complicated and interactive. Players giving/guiding NPC action orders/directions (but not micro-managing them every move) takes ALOT of programming skill. SO this is yet another Asset Creation opportunity - MODULAR programmed AI for all the different actions possible by NPCs (and with all the different Tools and Terrain types). To go along with this type of Asset there would be Training/Practice rigs which can show the Player how to control their NPCs -- its like Tutorials most games have, but this MMORPG would have a far greater number of options (they also serve as TESTING RIGS for the evaluation of this programmed AI logic BEFORE it gets incorporated into the game). Complex AI is thus possible, and much of the AI would run on the Player's Client machine to offload the processing resources from the Servers. --- --- --- Fantasy - Its So Much Less : INFINITE BS is like having "Bapture" built underground (nearer to the Earths core, of course) using the new "Radium Drill" technology -- the writers thus creating total technological gobble-dee-gook (except TOO close to some Real Science) - just to create their Failtopian Dystopia, and trot out their pet Strawman accusations about the excesses of Individualism, Freedom and Capitalism, all while having YOU THE PLAYER mass-slaughter feeblely created 'Evil People'). Science gobberish, Technical gibberish, Historic gibberish, Societal gibberish, Game Story excremetory gibberish. But the terrain was huge (not well detailed, but huge). --- --- --- Little Brothers of Lamb's Hell (The Murdered Innocents) ''' : With Big Sisters kidnapping numerous children (we only saw a fraction of the incidents in SitS) and probably grabbing some by accident who were inappropriate for future Little Sisters. So besides simply disposing-of-them, they may have fed the experiments she was doing attempting her "Utopian". Many of the original ADAM experts had died or fled out of Lamb's reach, so much of the methods would need redeveloping or NEW research in a direction previous ADAM Technology had not gone. The 'Doctors' required many human experimental subjects (preferably not already ADAM tainted/warped). We saw many cremation ash canisters in Inner Persephone ... possible evidence of the many attempts and failures. The concept art of those Little Brother 'tents' could be made use of to reflect some of the child experimentation, possibly employed to subject them to breathing various weird shit -- to either change them or to keep them from dying from the experimentation. --- --- --- '''Concept : Jack/Delta are Souless Golems , and 'Right Choice' is nothing to them, particularly when they are programmed/compelled (WYK, the Eleanor Daddy-programming ) to do someone else's bidding : Worse is Booker, who is an immoral thug wastrel, who shouldn't suddenly "change his spots" just because he has gone schizo and has YOU (the Player) now in his head running things. Whatever 'choice' (little enough game effect in BS1/BS2 anyway) they planned in Infinite BS was gone by the time of publication. BTW, how can Booker be 'redeeming himself' (that 'debt' is just refuse from his bad worse-than-worthless life) with that Reveal at the end of the game which makes everything he did all meaningless/choiceless anyway??? (and what 'redemption' if he's just going to do similar again - "Leopards Dont Change Their Spots" ...) Oh sure, you can just quit the game when you are disgusted enough, but you've already paid the purchase price (though in Europe I think you can still get your money back after you played all the way through in a weekend). --- --- --- Lets Have MMORPG Player Created Content Grounded in Real World Things : Rapture was far better storytelling because it had a relatable Real World social environment, which was warped by the stories 'Bio' 'Shock'. We see it after that disruption has crippled the City, and we know how messed up it has become. NOT Columbia, where everything from its inception by racist cultists was done without even needing that magic/fantasy Faux-science 'city in the clouds' aspect. It was already distorted FAR away from 'normal' (despite claims by Levine&Co), and so the story had little the Player could relate to or have Empathy about. It was alot like having a protest about Racism in Oz. The MMORPG can use those established generic themes (nostalgic 40s-isms and Art Deco, etc...) based on specifications in the 2 games (and their DLC), and some additional interesting ideas/elaborations from the Novel). Add some of the useful/less-absurd bits from Infinite BS's Rapture. The Rapture BioShock doesn't have a locked-in/overly-defined context (example - like the "Lord of the Rings" world does upon Tolkien's works). Its vague preexisting Canon offers alot of flexibility, instead of precise details which needs to be slavishly adhered to. It can also be filtered by applying logical Real World knowledge, related to 40s/50s realities in technology/science/society/motivations. With lots of research for various game ideas being possible, there can be reproduction of many real world things -- a reason that BioShock was so popular : THAT Nostalgia, having REAL/recognizable things/themes (which game artists can rarely CREATE well on their own). That normality then is the 'foil' upon which the story's ADAM-effect plays its changes. Even the various advanced devices and the genetic technology can be grounded in real 40s/50s principles (and reined in a bit if they are too absurd). Much of what you saw in the game can be Cleverly 'explained' (finally) to make them into less magical/fantasy, and the many vague contradictions can be worked out. The game Setting should be a 'WHAT IF', not a 'Through the Looking Glass' environment. --- --- --- A Strange Adventure in Splicerland : Then you notice that they ALL have YOUR face, OR are they wearing *YOU* masks they whittled-up just to psyche you out? Phew, it was just a bad dream .... OR IS IT !!!! NO THIS IS THE DREAM AND YOU ARE BACK WITH THOSE WEIRDOS !!! IS THAT A White Rabbit !?!? FEED YOUR HEAD ??? WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN!!!!! (Oh Noooooos, Sander Cohen iz after me again !!! I'm Late. I'm Terribly Late For The New Years Party !!!!) (('' Thot - add somewhere the Lewis Carroll 'March Hare' encased in Plaster .... )) Strange things ARE possible in the MMORPG, when Players can exercise their imaginations (with the idea that ADAM can make you crazy being a good excuse for weird things being seen). --- --- --- '''Nuke-U-Lar' : Achievement of Ryan's Moon Rapture was the Nuclear Reactors used to power it all. It was early days for Nuclear power, but Ryan WAS an expert in Power Systems (the game said so). Ryan could have been indirectly connected with the Manhattan Project which used HUGE amounts of electric power. Refining nuclear isotopes was hard for making A-bombs, but ALOT easier for nuclear fuel rods for atomic reactors. Consider most people at the time of Hiroshima knew VERY LITTLE about atomic energy (do most today really know much more ?) and it was mostly buzzwords thrown around (kinda like the way Levine&Co writers talked about Quantum Mechanics). Unlike 'quantumz', nuclear power has alot of real things that this game element can be based on. --- --- --- Apps For This MMORPG Project : Everyone and their brother is creating Apps these days. For this game, they could create useful offline MMORPG activities (ie- organizing and manipulating Player's data/inventory/communications/NPC Tasks) as well as a bunch of alternate Mini-Game entertainments. Players (to be the major contributors) will need sufficient knowhow and creativity to make these Apps 'Good' (versus just functional and not repetitive/tedious/onerous) and actually useful to the MMORPG experience. As usual, vetting needs to be done well for things like this. Likewise implementing the Player identity verification methods for data security. If actual useful resources interact through the Apps then they become a target. People will Cheat ? That's why these games have validation and security done on the Server side where the Players cannot hack them, and THAT software (and the App Client itself) would be very well vetted/bug-proofed by the Company (preferably run first on a dummy Test Server - to be inspected and used by Player Testers working it over first). List of different Assistance Apps : * Communications - official as well as personal (in-game mail) * Voting (Your participation as a Citizen of New Rapture is sought) * Resource and Task management (your NPC Team lackeys need to be monitored/guided) * Entertainment (ie- watching Rapture TV and Radio) * Fun (various interesting experiences, humorous interaction, etc..) * LOLSeaslugs (gotta have funny captions - cats aren't supposed to have all the fun) --- --- --- NNORPG - Neural Net Online Role Playing Game (an actual "Computer Game") ' : So YOU PLAY "THE THINKER" AND GET TO ADD UP NUMBERS ALL DAY LONG - EXCITING !!! Clickey-Clickey buttons matching lit lights and you get points for it !!! Candy Crush your days are numbered !!! "OH NOOOOOOSS, I GOTZ A *ZERO* WHEN I SHOULDA GOTZ A *ONE* -- THIS STUPID GAMEZ IS TOO HARD !!!! " Hmm, there are OTHER Players so YOU must be only ONE CPU part of the big computer. --- --- --- '''Bullshit To $ell A Game (Beyond Bullshit Actually) ' : Levine - You may want to learn a bit more on the subject of 'Religious Extremism' before you make such statements. I don't recall 'the Baptists' (one of the many american church groups actually) murdering every other sect's followers or forcing them to 'convert' to theirs ... do you ??. We have laws (at least here in America that have not been overridden) which say it is a crime to do those things. So broaden your education on that subject please. Requiring Baptism in a Cult to enter Columbia (America in caricature allegedly) is NO America that ever existed (and pretending Columbia is American ANYTHING is simple dishonesty -- but then, there is ALOT of intellectual DISHONESTY in your game and interviews). --- --- --- Game Mechanics 'Fire and Forget Tasks for 'Team NPCs' ' : Why force the Player to do tedious things when all kinds of Adventuring awaits out there ?? Lots of MMORPG have tedious repetitive skill-less activities (and their crafting stuff it extremely boring too). Not even being like a BioShock Hacking game or a candy-crush-like puzzle to offer some interest (or gambling chance game). Just a sap of the Player's time to cover up the lack of anything more interesting to do in the game (and then generally done in a way that unless you expend extreme amounts of tedious effort, you (FINALLY) get things that aren't even as good as those that are handed to Players as reward for doing ordinary Missions). SO we can (in the MMORPG) instead have Tasks the Player's NPCs will do for YOU (as they want to make a living working for you). THEY get to repeat doing things Over and Over (routine things you specify) There is a need to make the interface for this easy to understand/control in assigning/prioritizing tasks, monitoring-status, for decision-making where needed. Otherwise it is just a more complicated half-assed game mess than the 'usual' game-company product. --- --- --- '''Pets For Players : Useful Ones that live in your Residence or Store/Shop (some have utility like vermin control). 'Pets' that might accompany you on Expeditions ? -- There are (complex) behavior programming and animations(lotsa development work) issues (trouble enough making Splicers/NPCs behave correctly/intelligently in situations -- this isn't precanned/"Here Booker Catch" stuff). The obvious surviving Cats unfortunately don't like to be herded. (But they (generally) sit home just fine as long as you feed them regularly, and can keep down the rodents and bugs there). Robotic 'Pets' may have been all the rage at one point in Rapture (later, right before that 'civil war' thing threw the whole of Rapture into chaos). Their mechanical limitations would make them less unpredictable in their actions. 'Training' Advancement Ramp for Pets (means also communications of commands (interface) for them). Sorry, dressing your pets in cute clothing will earn you a trip back to the Sanatorium. If you make the scripting of autonomous Pet behaviors then Pets For Splicers too ... * Cats * Rats (White mice from the old medical areas probably didnt survive very well) * How many Dogs would be left ? (they're good eatin') * Fish tank (Sea Slug ?) * Pet SeaSlug to generate ADAM (implanting them is Verboten). Unfortunately THESE are very rare, as they were depopulated in the vicinity of Rapture in years past. * Roaches (for racing) * Barnacles stored in an aquarium/jar ready for late night snacks aren't exactly "pets",. * AND Other things Player Creators will no doubt create. --- --- --- Explanation For All the Odd Splicers Wandering Fontaines Department Store : Apparently the 'Thug' archetypes didn't offer enough variety in the game so that called for all of these others to be added to the game 'Prison' situation. (As well as all those unfortunate corpses of customers and employees unexplainedly 'trapped' there ??) SO Dangerous Crazies also just got chucked in there to get them off the streets?? You cannot really call the place any proper 'Prison', so it really could only be for temporary detention. Supposedly there's not enough space yet in Persephone for these (its takes time to expand it ?) If Persephone had Vacancies the Fontaine Goons (co-criminals) wouldn't be kept in such a half-assed setup, and would be THERE instead. --- --- --- ' "I'm Just Sayin'.." ' : This seems to be said alot these days. What exactly does that mean ? That is a copout, where the person saying it (often to say the receiving person is wrong/to make a point) thus implies : They are'just' making a statement, but pretend to not 'mean it', IN CASE it is something which will offend (but see thereby now is somehow NOT guilty of offense). And now don't have to back it up with facts/reason/logic cuz its not really their doing. I've never said this. Supporting your own position with conviction should NOT offend - except to those who's offendness is most of the defense of THEIR opinions, which generally then continues unsupported by them. People who say "Just Sayin.." are wishy-washy passive aggressive philistines. I mean what I say, and will back it up/defend it with explanations/evidence and use of reason and logic. If the opposition cannot do the same, then they lose the argument as well as my respect. It is as simple as that. Being 'offended' by the truth is dishonesty and/or a sign of mental incompetance. --- --- --- Theory ? Hypothesis of an 'Explanation' ' : Maybe Comstock Stole all those (dim cityscape) buildings for his flying ''Whateverthehellitis (Oops - real building don't look like most of the ones seen in game, so STILL no explanation there then.) From parallel universes where the buildings DID look that wrongly designed ?? Then why not a Shitload™ of other alien stuff also for the rest of everything there ?? It all would freak out his cultist reactionaries, wouldn't it ? (( '' WHAT KIND OF FREAKSHOW HELL DID YOU BRING US TO COMSTOCK !!! GET A ROPE BOYS!!!! ... '' )) Stoning some Miscegenationists - one white the other green (alien slave class). Remember - murdering/slaughtering ALIENS poses no problem in the Computer Game Industry ... (Green blood splashing everywhere - proper limb-dismembering/intestine-ripping explosions are all '''OK ...) --- --- --- Kinetoscope Analysis ' "Solving the Irish Problem" ( Comstock's FINAL SOLUTION ??? ) ' : Found in Columbia, The Arcade, end of the hallway near Whites-Only restrooms. Narrated Transcript : * Meet THE DRUNK! THE LAGGARD! - Man passed out dead drunk at bar counter * Meet THE STRUMPET! His BROOD MARE! - Women scrubs laundry against washboard, while children cry around her * Together, they manufacture future VOX POPULI recruits! - Footage of people protesting * "Send them to me!" Says Jeremiah Fink at Fink MFG. - Image of statue featuring a confident man with pocket watch, surrounded by his wife and children; statue base reads "Your Future is Finkton" * "They'll work, or by God, die trying!" - Men stand at attention facing giant clock indicating "Work" FIN "Arbeit Macht Frei" - Is this what Levine&Co thought America was - like Hitlers Final Solution ??? More like : The Irish Kill Fink and Comstock and take this Flying Prison down to the ground, get off and burn it to ashes (no need for the stupid VOX 'resistance' crap). The Irish didn't come to America to face this kinda shit all over again. The whole place could so easily be sabotaged/burned-out (you don't need guns for that). Better : THEY WOULD NEVER COME TO A PLACE LIKE THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE, NOR STAY, NOR LONG PUT UP WITH IT. Its just so much Contrived Rubbish (Why would WASP-ish 'Eden' even have such people allowed in ??) - who wrote this dumbshit crap or allowed the thrice-rewritten game to get this stupid ? --- --- --- Columbia's Flying Model Ts (Here's Some Actual Imagination For You) ' : 1908 Ford starts production of the Model T (which ran upto 1927). So even just 'Looking into the Future' to use near-era technology - which might be managable (game's Fantasy gets whacked by a teeny bit of realism). Keep those wheels for moving on Columbia 'streets' where appropriate (Columbia might then have a few less stairs which impede alot of transport anyway). Auto Fly between the 'islands' - eliminate the absurd bridges seen in some cutscenes (Magic Fantasy Money would be needed to build all that horrendously expensive stuff - the Infinite BS Economy is as FAUX as most of the rest of the game's setting.) Flying Mack trucks instead of that stupid horse contraption (would have been nice for the gamemaker to make up their mind about being 'moderne' or 'reactionary'). --- --- --- '''Infinite BS Wonderous FANTASY Game Terrain (Oh Look, A Bridge Collapsing ... Custscene) ' : Unfortunately the little New Eden Cult Compound 'city' couldn't afford to build such a thing (not a big enough tax base) even if they had the material/knowhow/inclination. Biggest Fantasy of all for this retarded game would be claiming the US Government built it all (something told us by know-nothings game writers who show us they haven't a fucking clue about how things operated in the US in 1893 --- or apparently at any other time). SORRY - I'm '''NOT 'Just Saying'. --- --- --- --- --- . .